Horses live much of their lives in a small stall of a barn or stable having three closed sides and an open side secured by a hinged front gate. Being curious animals, and recognizing the direction from which all food, exercise, companionship, etc., originates, horses spend an inordinate amount of time leaning out of their stalls over the front gate. Often, frustration, nervousness, skittishness or just plain boredom compels these animal to chew, kick, lunge into or otherwise abuse their front gate. Unfortunately, the present state-of-the-art horse stall gates do little to safeguard the horse from injury, given that the gates are the focus of so much potentially harmful attention.
Horse stall gates are primarily manufactured cheaply from wood and painted. Wood tends to wear faster in humid climates such as Fla., and especially so when subjected to a horse prone to chewing. Splinters and abrasive surfaces result from the frayed wood which can lead to irritating minor injuries and, in the worst cases, dangerous infection. Moreover, the chipping paint from wood gates presents a chemical hazard if ingested.
Racing horses in particular present a great risk because of their high value. Moreover, the painted gates inevitably fade and must be repainted frequently thus consistently exposing the horses to fresh paint. Ironically, expensive racing horses, often bought and sold as an investment commodity, are needlessly exposed to greater lo levels of potentially toxic paint than their domestic counterparts for the sake of a form of advertising, which is ultimately intended to increase their worth.
A further problem with wood stall gates is their typically solid panel construction making them heavy. The commonly used solid panel construction also renders the wood gates very poor ventilators. In order for horses to keep in good spirits, which takes on added significance for horses before a big race, they must be kept comfortable. A hot and stuffy stall can negatively affect a horse's performance and solid wood gates are often partly to blame.
Some gates have been manufactured from aluminum bars which solves the ventilation problem and results in a relatively lightweight gate. Unfortunately, the aluminum still needs painting, and the wide spacing between bars can present a danger if the horse gets a leg caught in it and frightens. It is common knowledge that a horse with a broken leg can seldom recover to walk, let alone race again.
Thus, there has been a need for quite some time for an improved horse stall gate which solves the deficiencies of prior designs.